DAV PUBLIC SCHOOL

GANDHINAGAR RANCHI

Adulteration In Food-Stuffs

Submitted to: Submitted by:

• Miss Anju Sinha Bhawen Maroo

SESSION 2022-2023
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, praises and thanks to the God, the

Almighty, for His showers of blessings throughout my research

work to complete the research successfully.

I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to

my Chemistry Teacher, Miss Anju Sinha for giving me the

opportunity to present the model. I would also like to thank him

for his friendship, empathy, and great sense of humor. I am

extending my heartfelt thanks to my friends, family for their

acceptance and help during the model creation work and thesis

preparation.

I am extremely grateful to my parents for their love,

prayers, caring and sacrifices for educating and preparing me

for my future.

Finally, my thanks go to all the people who have supported me to complete

the research work directly or indirectly.

-Bhawen Maroo
XII S4
 Certificate

This is to certify Bhawen Maroo of class 12 has successfully

completed the Chemistry Project for class XII practical examination
of the Central Board of Secondary Education in the year 2022-23. It
is further certified that this project is the individual work of the
candidate.

Internal Examiner External Examiner

 Index
• Introduction to Adulteration
• What food is Adulterated ?
• Experiment 01
• Experiment 02
• Experiment 03
• Conclusion
 Introduction To Adulteration

Adulteration of food commonly defined as “the addition or

subtraction of any substance to or from food, so that the natural
composition and quality of food substance is affected".
Adulteration is either intentional by either removing substances to
food or altering the existing natural properties of food knowingly.
Unintentional adulteration is usually attributed to ignorance’s,
carelessness or lack of facilities for
maintaining food quality. Incidental contamination during the period
of growth, harvesting, storage, processing, transport and distribution
of foods are also considered.

“Adulterant” means any material which is or could be employed for

making the food unsafe or sub-standard or mis-branded or containing
extraneous matter.

In other words, A food is adulterated if it omits a valuable constituent

or substitutes another substance, in whole or in part, for a valuable
constituent (for instance, olive oil diluted with tea tree oil);
conceals damage or inferiority in any manner (such as fresh
fruit with food colouring on its surface to conceal defects);
or any substance has been added to it or
packed with it to increase its bulk or weight, reduce its quality or
strength, or make it appear bigger or of greater value than it is
(for example, scallops to which water
has been added to make them heavier)
 What Food is Adulterated?

Food is declared adulterated if:

• A substance is added which depreciates or injuriously affects it.

• Cheaper or inferior substances are substituted wholly or in part.
• Any valuable or necessary constituent has been wholly or in part
abstracted.
• It is an imitation.
• It is coloured or otherwise treated, to improve its appearance or
if it contains any added substance injurious to health.
• For whatever reasons its quality is below the Standard

Adulterated food is dangerous because it may be toxic and can affect

health and it could deprive nutrients essential for proper growth and
development.

Some of the adulterated foods we can say are the following:

• Milk
• Edible oils
• Pubes
• Tea
• Coffee
• Serials
• Butter
• Turmeric
• Pepper
• Soyas…etc.
 Experiment – 01

Food article to be detected : Fats And Oils, Butter

ADULTERANT : Vanaspati or Margarine

Method Of Detection :

1. Take one teaspoon of full melted sample of fat with equal

quantity of concentrated HCL in US stopped test tube and add to
it a pinch of sugar.
2. Shake for 1 minute
3. Let it settle for 5 minutes
4. Appearance of crimpson color comes in lower acid of vanaspati

REMARKS :

• If the test is positive, red colour develops only my adding strong

HCL and then the sample is adulterated with coaltro dye.
• If the crimson or red colour develops after shaking with sugar
than alone vanaspatis are present

Food article to be detected : Oil

ADULTERANT : Any other oil, Generally Cheaper

Method Of Detection :

1. Add 5 ml of concentrated HCL to the oil and shape gently

2. Let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes
3. The colour will separate in upper layer of the solution
4. In case of coconut oil, places small bottle of oil in the
refrigerator

REMARKS :

• Coconut oil solidifies leaving the adult in a separate layer

• In case of sesame oil which is compulsory added to vanaspati
and margerin
• Cobalt colour also gives a positive test

CONCLUSION :
After the experiment it has been concluded that the various
adults used for adulteration of fats, oils and butters are vanaspati or
any other cheaper oils
 Experiment – 02

Food article to be detected : SUGAR

ADULTERANT 1 : Chalk Powder

Method Of Detection :

1. Dissolve 10 grams of sample in glass of water

2. Allow settling it
3. Chowk will settle down at the bottom

ADULTERANT 2 : Urea

Method Of Detection :

1. On dissolving in water it gives the smell of ammonia

ADULTERANT 3 : Yellow Colour (Non-permitted)

Method Of Detection :

1. Take 5 ml solution in a test tube from the above solution

2. Add a few drops of concentrated HCL

Remark :

A Pink colour in lower acid layer shows the presence of non

permitted colours

Food article to be detected : BURA SUGAR

ADULTERANT : Washing Soda

Method Of Detection :
1. Add one ml of HCL to a little of Bura sugar
2. Effervescence occur if washing soda is present
3. Dissolve 2 gram of sugar in water
4. Dip a red litmus paper in the solution

Remark :

If the washing soda is present, after the first step effervescence

occur and after the fourth step, the red litmus paper turns blue.

Conclusion :
After the above experiment it has been concluded that
various adulterants can be added to sugar are chalk powder, uriya and
colour with washing soda can be detected very easily using
concentrated HCL
 Experiment – 03

Food article to be detected : TURMERIC POWDER

ADULTERANT : Colour and washing soda

Method Of Detection :

1) Name Of Tests:
• Palm Test
• Water Test
• Metanil Test
• Lead Chromate Test
• Chalk Powder Test
• Starch Test

i. Palm Test :
Put a pinch of turmeric on your palm and massager for 20
seconds

Observations :

Pure turmeric will stick to your palm creating strong yellow

strain turn your palm upside down, if large amount of turmeric falls it
indicates adulteration

ii. Water Test :

Take a glass of warm water
 Add one t-spoon of Turmeric
Let it settle for 15 minutes

Observations :
If it settles it is real turmeric and if it doesn’t settle and leaves
a dark yellow colour it is adulterated.

iii. Metanil Test : Place a pinch of termeric in a testtube

Add a few drops of strong HCL
Shake Violently

Observations :
If the solution turns pink it indicates the existence of
metaline.

iv. Lead Chromate Test: Mix a t-spoon of turmeric with water

Observations :
It will instantly leach streak of water soluble colour showing
the presence of lead chromate.

v. Chalk Powder Test : Place a t-spoon of turmeric in a test tube

Fill it with a few drops of water and HCL Acid

Observations :
Presence of chalk powder is indicated by formation of bubble in
the solution.

vi. Starch Test : Place the turmeric powder under a microscope to

check the presence of starch
Observations :
Turmeric particles are yellow, angular and large but the starch
particles are lighter, white, spherical and smaller.

Food article to be detected : CHILLY POWDER

ADULTERANT- 01 : Brick powder, salt powder, talc powder sand or

soapstone.

Method Of detection :
Take a glass of water and a teaspoon of Chile powder to it
Examine the residue I taking a small quantity of residue on
your palm and rub it

OBSERVATION :
a) If residue is felt greeti after rubbing then the chilli powder is
adulterated with brick powder
b) If the residue feel Sophie and very smooth it is adulterated with
soapstone
c) If coloured water extract shows the presence of any added
colour it is adulterated
d) When concentrated HCL is added to the paste of chili powder
and matchstick dipped in this page is held over a flame or red
flame of brick colour is seen which shows the presence of
calcium salt in the brick powder

ADULTERANT-02 : Artificial Colour

Method Of detection :
Sprinkle the chili powder on a glass of water

Observation :
Artificial colorant decent as the colours strikes
ADULTERANT-03 : Water soluble kolatar

Method of Detection :
Sprinkler small quantity of chili powder on the surface of
water in glass Tumblr.

Observation :
The water soluble colour will immediately start the
descending in colours strikes.

Food article to be detected : PEPPER

ADULTRANT-01 : Papaya Seeds

Method of Detection :
Papaya seeds can be separated out from paper as they are
shrunken ovel in shape and greenish brown in colour

ADULTRANT-02 : Light Black Pepper

Method of Detection :
1) Float the sample of paper in alcohol the black pepper
sync while papaya seeds and light paper floats
2) Press the berries with the help of finger
3) Light peppers with black berries of paper will not break

ADULTRANT-03 : Black Pepper coated with mineral oil

Method of Detection :
1) Black pepper coated with mineral oil gives a kerosene
 oil like smell

Observation :
Adulterated pepper gives a polished appearance. Mineral
oil also adds more weight and imparts dark black color. Mineral oil is
obtained from band diesel which is highly banned

CONCLUSION :
From the above experiment it has been concluded that
various food products like chili powder, turmeric powder and black
pepper are adulterated using brick powder mineral oil papaya seeds
etc. These can be easily detected from the above experiments
performed
 CONCLUSION

Food adulteration impacts almost all food materials worldwide and in

many forms. Adulteration alters food properties
and it may also contribute to severe health and safety issues
for consumers. Food adulteration
detection methods are focused
on physical, chemical, biochemical and other methods.
Incidental adulteration occurs when foreign substances are added to a
food as a result of ignorance,
negligence, or improper facilities.
Intentional adulteration involves
the deliberate addition of inferior materials to a food to heighten
appearance qualities and to gain greater profits.